GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice

By Ron Woldoff

Prepare efficiently and effectively for the Graduate Record Examination

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is the most widely accepted graduate-school admissions test in the world. Over half a million people take the test every year. GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice is filled with useful, hands-on practice materials to help you reach your goals on this standardized test. The book teaches the verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills required in graduate school and on the exam, so that you can get into the school of your choice — even with a scholarship — and start your journey towards the career that you want.

In the book, you’ll find:

• Updated strategies for acing text completion questions and learning words with common roots
• Practice for finding synonyms in sentence equivalence questions and argument analysis deconstructions
• Advanced techniques for reading comprehension questions
• Proven strategies for acing the math sections
• Step-by-step instructions for writing killer issue and argument essays

Perfect for prospective graduate students seeking to take the GRE, GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice is a must-read handbook containing detailed content information, strategies for improving your score and testing well, along with plenty of opportunities to practice what you’ve learned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781119886624

Book preview

Introduction

Years ago, during an early gig as a consultant, I sat at a desk that had a For Dummies book on the shelf. The book was something office-related, like SQL For Dummies. I took a sticky note and wrote the word Ron with a black marker, and then placed the sticky note over the word Dummies on the side of the book, so it read SQL for Ron. It fit nicely.

Since starting my test-prep company, I’ve had students who would be my boss in the business world, and many have gone on to have amazingly successful careers. You, too, are in this group of future success stories. How do I know? Because you’re on your way to an advanced degree, which will open lots of doors, and you’re oh-so-close to getting started. You just need to get past this one hurdle called the GRE.

The GRE challenges your ability to conjure up everything you’ve forgotten since high school — things you haven’t thought about in years. Really, all you need is a refresher, some strategies, and practice. This book has all that and more: It goes beyond rehashing what you’ve learned (and forgotten) by providing exam-specific strategies and tips for answering questions quickly and getting through the exam. There are examples, practice questions, and practice exams to help you hone your skills, identify areas you need to work on, and build your confidence for test day.

I’ve never met someone who couldn’t do well on the exam. I have met people who haven’t been coached properly, or who haven’t practiced enough. With this take, I aim for 100 percent with each student. You’re a little rusty here, haven’t seen that there, could use a few tips, but you’ll pick it up and do just fine. Succeeding on the GRE is like any other skill: If you know what to do, you have some coaching, and you practice, you’ll be fine. I get you started with some review and guidance, and you take it from there.

About This Book

In GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies, I pretend you forgot everything. You start at the very beginning, covering all the basic math and verbal concepts, and then try some challenging GRE-level questions. You also discover how to approach these questions, avoid common mistakes, and practice the intuitive tricks that help you knock it out of the park.

There are three components to achieving a top GRE score:

Knowing what’s on the exam.

Read through this whole book. No matter how well you know a topic, you can discover strategies and common traps specific to the GRE, which has a way of asking a question that’s different from what you’re used to — or what you learned in the classroom.

Strengthening your weak subject areas.

While you’re reading through the book, mark any sections that have unfamiliar or unclear topics so you can revisit them during your review. This book is organized to make it easy to find strategies and practice for specific question types that you have trouble with.

Preparing for the test-taking experience.

Answering the exam questions is one thing, but taking the exam is another. Start with the online practice exams to prep for the experience. ETS offers two excellent online practice exams, free, but you’ll need more than two. Packaged with this book, also free (after you buy the book), are six online practice exams: three in the book itself and all six online. When your exam is just around the corner, take one or two practice exams in real-life, dress-rehearsal settings. Flip to Part 6, The Part of Tens, for ten ways to get the most benefit from the online practice exams.

Basically, this book does it all: It prepares you for the exam by taking your skills from the basic level to the GRE level and fixing any gaps. What else is there?

There’s vocab.

To help you with vocab, as you read through this book, you’ll notice that some words have a style all their own. Each GRE vocabulary word in this text appears in this font, followed directly by its connotation (meaning). Besides that, when you encounter a GRE vocab word in a question, look up its meaning and write it down. This is an effective complement to studying from a list or flash cards.

Icons Used in This Book

Look for these icons to spot highlights throughout this book:

Tip This indicates a key strategy or point to remember. There are lots of these, which is good, because they’re essential to your success on the exam.

Remember This indicates overall knowledge about the exam that’s useful for planning your approach, such as managing your time or knowing what to expect.

Warning This marks a GRE trap or common student mistake so you can spot it and dodge it on test day.

Play This indicates a practice question for you to try.

Beyond the Book

Besides this book, there are more resources online, including these:

Cheat sheet: Go to www.dummies.com and type GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies cheat sheet in the Search box for this book’s cheat sheet, which gives you last-minute details, including a rundown of what to expect when you take the GRE, a list of what to bring versus what to leave at home, tips for taking the computer-based exam, and more pointers for answering exam questions.

Over 400 GRE vocabulary flash cards: Stock your mental word bank and boost your verbal score by accessing the meanings of over 400 words that frequently appear on the GRE.

Six full-length practice exams: You can take the three practice exams in this book along with three more online to help you build your competence and confidence. You can select the level of difficulty and answer the questions through untimed and timed quizzes, so you can practice at your own speed and then try it out under pressure.

To gain access to the online flash cards and practice questions, register your book or ebook at Dummies.com by following these steps:

Go towww.dummies.com/go/getaccess.

Select your product from the drop-down list on that page and follow the prompts to validate your product.

Check your email for a confirmation message that includes your PIN and instructions for logging in.

If you don’t get an email within two hours, be sure to check your spam folder. You can also contact Technical Support through http://support.wiley.com or 877-762-2974.

Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the practice material as often as you want — simply log on with the username and password you created during your initial login. No need to enter the access code a second time.

Your registration is good for one year from the day you activate your PIN.

Where to Go from Here

You can approach this book in three ways:

Work through it from beginning to end. For most readers, I recommend this approach. Although prepping to take the GRE isn’t a linear process, I present topics from easy to challenging, so they build on each other as you progress through the chapters. I provide a feel for the test-taking experience along with guidance for each section of the exam — verbal, math, and essays — followed by practice exams, and I wrap things up with some Part of Tens chapters that will stick with you long after you’re done with this book.

Skip around. Each chapter is a stand-alone lesson on a specific GRE topic. If your study time is limited, skip around to focus on areas where you need the most guidance. For example, you can skip to Chapter 7 to hone your skills at answering Argument Analysis questions, or visit Chapter 12 to brush up on geometry. Another strategy is to take one of the sample tests to evaluate your skills and identify areas of weakness, and then use that information to develop your plan of attack.

Use it as a reference book. Whenever you need information and advice on a specific GRE topic or skill, simply flip to the chapter or section that contains the information and guidance you need. GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies offers a refresher on the topics and skills you need to get the score you need on the GRE.

As you go through the book, write up some flash cards to note key concepts and strategies. These cards will serve as a handy reference while you review your notes.

I’ve been helping GRE students beat the test for years, so I know not only students’ common questions and mistakes, but also how to make the math and verbal questions easier to answer. This book distills my tricks and secrets, which I’m pleased to share with you. Your success, after all, is why we’re both here.

Part 1

Getting Started with the GRE

IN THIS PART …

Get the details about signing up for the GRE, what’s on the exam, and how your score is calculated.

Figure out how to plan and manage your study time ahead of test day, and get some pointers if you’re retaking the exam.

Know what you need to do to prepare for the exam (beyond studying) along with what to expect on test day.

Chapter 1

Knowing the GRE

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Knowing the layout of the GRE

Bullet Understanding how your scores are calculated

Bullet Bringing the GRE into your comfort zone

The GRE isn’t an IQ test. Nor is it a measure of your worth as a human being or a predictor of your ultimate success in life. The GRE is designed to assess your ability to excel in grad school by sizing you up in three areas.

Work ethic: How hard you’re willing and able to work to achieve an elusive academic goal — in this case, performing well on the GRE — reflects (to them) your work ethic. Graduate schools consider this to be a measure of how hard you’ll work in their programs.

Study skills: To do well on the GRE, you must master some basic study skills and be able to process and retain new information.

Test-taking ability: This is your ability to perform well on a test, under pressure, which is a separate ability from being able to answer the questions. Exams are ubiquitous (appearing everywhere) to grad school, so you need to prove that you can take one without folding under pressure.

This book can’t help you in the first area: That’s all you. As a study guide, however, this book shapes you up in the second and third areas, enabling you to study more effectively and efficiently and improve your overall test-taking skills. By knowing the material and taking the practice tests, you establish a foundation for doing well on the GRE. And usually, if you know what to do and how to do it, you might find yourself working a little bit harder. In this way, this book can help you in that first area.

In this chapter, I discuss the GRE’s structure and scoring system so you can build your strategies around them. With this guidance, you’re better equipped to avoid surprises that may throw you off your game.

Knowing the GRE Sections

Standardized tests tend to bring on the chills. Telling someone you have to take the SAT, ACT, or GRE usually gets the same response as saying that you need to have your wisdom teeth pulled. However, with this book, the GRE isn’t such a chilling experience, and breaking it down to its component parts makes it more manageable and less threatening.

The paper and computer versions of the GRE are slightly different. For one thing, the paper version has 25 questions per section, with four sections, while the computer version has 20 questions per section with five sections — either way, 100 questions.

You are almost certainly taking the computer-based version, but some materials provided by ETS, including the book-based practice tests and downloadable PDFs, are in the paper-based format. The guidance in this book refers to the computer-based version of the GRE, but I indicate the paper-based differences that you may encounter in the ETS practice materials — or just in case you do take the paper-based exam, however unlikely.

Table 1-1 provides a quick overview of what’s on the exam. The essays are always first, but the multiple-choice sections may be in any order.

TABLE 1-1 GRE Breakdown by Section (Computer-Based)

Remember At close to four hours, the GRE challenges your stamina as much as your ability to answer the questions. No matter how solid your math and verbal skills are, you must maintain your focus to do well for the whole time, which isn’t easy on a challenging task such as this. Build your test-taking stamina by practicing in four-hour stretches and taking timed practice tests.

The computer-based GRE includes one unscored Math or Verbal section in addition to the scored sections. You will have three Math or three Verbal sections, with one of those sections unscored. This unscored section neither helps nor hurts your score. The GRE may indicate that the section is unscored, but it usually doesn’t, so be sure to work all the sections to the best of your ability. The paper-based GRE doesn’t have an unscored section, but instead will have discreetly unscored questions mixed in the sections.

Tip The GRE allows you to skip questions and return to them later, within that section. When you reach the end of a section, the GRE displays a review screen that indicates any unanswered questions. If you have time remaining in the section, return to these questions and answer them as well as you can. This feature is nice because you can knock out all the easy questions before spending time on the hard ones. (See Chapter 2 for more on planning your time.)

So what types of questions are there and how many of these can you expect on the GRE? Here’s Table 1-2 with the answers.

TABLE 1-2 GRE Breakdown by Question Type

This table describes the computer-based GRE questions, but the paper-based GRE questions have a similar ratio. Also note that the question types are mixed throughout their sections, so you may encounter them in any order. Sometimes the software groups similar questions at the beginning or the end. For example, if you’re halfway through a Verbal section and haven’t seen a Text Completion question, you will.

Knowing the GRE Scores

With the GRE, you receive three separate scores: Verbal, Math, and Analytical Writing. You drive home knowing your unofficial Verbal and Math scores (as explained in the following section), but you get your Analytical Writing score about two weeks later.

On the GRE, you can score a maximum of 340 points on the multiple-choice and 6 points on the essays. Here’s the scoring range for each of the three sections.

Verbal: The Verbal score ranges from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments. You get 130 points if you answer just one question, but that won’t help you much: You need to score as well as or better than most of the other test-takers to improve your chances of being admitted to your target school. The chapters in Part 2 give you the lowdown on the Verbal sections.

Math: The Math score also ranges from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments. The chapters in Part 3 have more on the Math sections.

Analytical Writing: The Analytical Writing score ranges from 0 to 6, in half-point increments, with 6 being the highest. Each essay is graded separately, and your final score is the average of the two. There is more on the essays in the Part 4 chapters.

Remember If a multiple-choice question requires two or more answers, you have to get all the answers correct: There is no partial credit. However, you don’t lose points for a wrong answer, so if you’re not sure, you may as well guess and return to the question later. More on this strategy in Chapter 2.

Calculating your score

Within each section, each question counts exactly the same toward your score: The more questions you get right, the higher your score for that section. An easy question is worth the same as a hard question. Because you can move back and forth within each section, one strategy is to skip around and answer all the easy questions first, then go back and work the hard questions. If you like this idea, try it out on a practice test before exam day.

On the computer version of the exam, the second Math or Verbal section (not counting the unscored section) becomes easier or harder based on your performance. For example, if you do extremely well on the first Math section, the GRE makes the second Math section harder. Even if you don’t get as many right in the second Math section, your score will be good, and it’ll definitely be higher than the score of someone who bombs the first Math section but gets them all right in the second one; GRE scoring accommodates for the difficulty level of the questions.

Warning The strategy of bombing the first Math and Verbal sections in order to answer more questions correctly on the respective second sections is not a good one, and you’ll end up with a low score. The exam doesn’t score you based solely on the number of correct answers: It scores you based on how smart it thinks you are. So if you do great on the first Math section, the exam thinks you’re smart and ups the level for the second Math section. If you don’t answer all those questions correctly, that’s okay: The questions are harder, and the exam has evaluated your skills. Conversely, if you bomb the first Math section, the exam thinks you’re not that good at math, so it drops the level for the second Math section. If you answer most of those questions correctly, it doesn’t count for much because those questions were easier.

When you complete a practice test from Part 5, you can easily estimate your Math and Verbal scores. For the Math score, count the math questions you answered correctly and then add 130 to that number. Because the GRE has 40 math questions (two sections with 20 questions each), this method gives you an approximate score from 130 to 170. You can find your Verbal score the exact same way, because the GRE also has 40 Verbal questions. Note this method doesn’t account for the changing difficulty of the second Math and Verbal sections, but it’s still an excellent way for you to practice and track your progress.

Checking your score

If you score close to 340, you did great! If you score closer to 260, not so much. But wait — your score is right in between! Did you pass? Did you fail? What does it mean? Well, you can’t really tell much about your score out of context. What does 320 mean? It all goes by a percentile ranking. To download the complete percentile table, visit www.ets.org, click GRE Tests, and search for percentile ranking. As of this writing, here are some highlights:

A raw score of 165 is typically a 96th percentile ranking in the Verbal and an 84th percentile ranking in the Math.

A raw score of 160 is typically an 85th percentile ranking in the Verbal and a 70th percentile ranking in the Math.

Basically, with a range of only 40 points per section among 500,000 GRE-takers per year, give or take, each point counts for a lot. How well you do is based on how well the other test-takers did. What you need to ask is the score needed for acceptance into your program — or, even better, the score needed for a scholarship! Once you’re in your program (or you’ve landed your scholarship), your GRE score doesn’t matter.

Also, your exam score is only one part of the total application package. If you have a good GPA, a strong résumé, and relevant work experience, you may not need as high of a GRE score. On the other hand, a stellar GRE score can compensate for other weak areas.

Seeing or canceling your scores

Immediately after finishing the GRE, you have the option of either seeing or canceling your Verbal and Math scores. Unfortunately, you don’t get to see your scores first. If you think you had a bad day, you can cancel, and your scores are neither reported to the schools nor shown to you. However, the schools are notified that you canceled your test. If you choose to see your score, you see it — minus the essay scores — right away, but you can’t cancel it after that.

Remember How much do the schools care about canceled scores? Probably not much, especially if a top GRE score (from when you retake the test 21 days later) follows the notice of cancellation. If you really want to know the impact of a canceled score, check with the admissions office of your target school. Each school weighs canceled scores differently. See the section "Using Old Scores" for more about what to do after canceling your GRE score.

Taking advantage of the ScoreSelect option

At the end of the test, you have the option of choosing which test scores to send to your target schools, assuming that you’ve taken the GRE more than once. You can send the most recent scores, scores from the past (within five years), or all your test scores. However, you can’t pick and choose sections from different testing dates. For example, if today you did better in Verbal but last time you did better in Math, you can’t select only those sections — you have to send the entire test. Select whether to send the scores from today’s test, the previous test, or all your tests.

Your GRE score is good for five years after your testing date, so if you use ScoreSelect, you’re limited to exams within the past five years.

Bringing the GRE into Your Comfort Zone

No need to panic about taking the GRE — and, besides, it’s counterproductive. You want to be confident and relaxed, which means bringing the GRE into your comfort zone. Working through this book and taking the practice tests can bring you very close to that goal, but having the right mindset is also useful. The following sections help put the GRE in the proper perspective and serve to remind you of just how prepared you really are.

Getting familiar with what’s on the exam

The GRE focuses on a specific range of core concepts and presents questions in a fairly predictable format. Surprises are unlikely, especially if you’re prepared and know what to expect. After you’ve successfully completed this book, you’ll have the knowledge and experience needed to get the score you need on the exam. You will gain even more familiarity with the test questions and format by taking the computerized GRE sample tests.

Remember A little self-affirmation goes a long way. In the days leading up to the test and on test day, remind yourself just how fully prepared you are. The GRE is designed to be challenging, and everyone who takes it is nervous, but you’re better prepared than they are. At least you will be.

Understanding the other admissions requirements

Although your performance on the GRE is important for admission, it’s not the only thing that admissions departments look at. Your work experience, GPA, extracurricular activities (including volunteer work), and other factors that define you are also important parts of your application. Of course, you should do your very best on the exam, but this isn’t a do-or-die situation. Worst case: Retake the exam. I’ve had plenty of students forget key points or make mistakes on their first time taking the exam. Next time around, they aced it!

Using Old Scores

What if you took the GRE a long time ago when you thought you were going to grad school and then opted to take a job or start a family instead? Well, if it was within the past five years, you’re in luck (assuming you scored well). GRE scores are reportable for up to five years. That means that if you’re pleased with your old score, you can send it right along to the school of your choice and say adios to this book right here and now. However, if you took the test more than five years ago, you have to take it again, so hold on to this book.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEST PREP

Stories abound about how someone’s friend’s cousin’s roommate took the GRE cold (with no preparation) and aced it. This story may be true on a rare occasion, but you hear only the success stories. Those test-takers who went in cold and bombed don’t brag about the outcome. As an instructor, however, I hear those other stories all the time.

The GRE doesn’t test your intelligence: It tests how well you’ve prepared for the test. I’d put my money on a prepared dunce over an unprepared genius every single time. Dramatically raising a test-taker’s score, say from the 30th to the 90th percentile ranking, is something I do every day before breakfast, and it’s what I do for you in this book. Being prepared means knowing what to expect and how to answer the questions, which means that the first time you calculate a fraction of a circle had better not be on the actual GRE. Make your mistakes here, in practice, not on the test.

Chapter 2

Planning Your Time

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Getting the most from your time before and during the test

Bullet Preparing for the four-hour experience

Bullet Scheduling the exam at a time that works for you

Bullet Handling your unique circumstances

Like anything you will ever do, the best way to build your confidence and improve your performance is to be prepared, which is as true for the GRE as it is for anything in life. Being familiar with the exam and knowing what to expect gives you fewer distractions so that you can focus on what really matters — the test itself. This chapter guides you through getting the most from the time that you have for both preparing for and taking the exam.

Planning Your Prep Time

As soon as you decide to take the GRE, the clock starts ticking. You have only so much time to study and practice, and suddenly the exam is tomorrow morning. The good news: I’ve taken many a student down this road, with great results, and here I’ve curated (collected) the best success strategies. The following sections show you how to optimize your study and practice time so you can answer the test questions quickly and easily.

Planning your study time

As an undergrad, you may have mastered the fine art of cramming the night before an exam, but that doesn’t work on the GRE. This test is based on skills, not memorization, and skills take time to develop. It’s like throwing a baseball: You need time to learn, practice, rest, and practice more. Give yourself plenty of time to absorb all the material you need to study. Here’s what I’ve seen work well in terms of planning and practice.

Six to 12 weeks of total preparation: Give yourself plenty of time to work through this book, take practice exams, and review areas where you need extra preparation. Six to 8 weeks works well for most people, but more time is generally better. At 12 weeks, you can do extremely well, but after 12 weeks, most people get burned out or lose interest, and they forget things they learned early on.

Three to four weeks on this book: Working through this book takes about three weeks, not including the practice tests. The practice tests should each take 2.5 hours (no essays) or 3.5 hours (with essays), plus another hour or two to review the answer explanations.

One to three hours per day, five or six days per week: Pace yourself. I’ve seen too many students burn themselves out from trying to master the whole test in three days. You need time to process all this new information and be ready to learn more.

Tip If you have only a few weeks to study, start with a practice test to get a sense of your strengths and weaknesses, then find your weakest subject areas from the table of contents at the beginning of this book and start with those chapters or sections.

This book provides broad coverage of everything you’re likely to encounter on the test, but if you find major weaknesses in certain areas, you may need to consult additional resources to improve your understanding and skills.

Remember Prioritize your study time and schedule regular, daily review sessions. Otherwise, other activities and responsibilities are likely to clutter your day and push study time off your to-do list.

Planning your practice time

Just because you know a subject doesn’t mean you can ace it on the GRE. Test-taking requires a completely separate skill set. Start taking practice tests at least two weeks before your actual exam so you have time to hone your skills, learn from your mistakes, and strengthen your weak areas. I once had a group of financial advisors struggle with the math portion. When I asked about this, they told me that they use Excel for everything!

Warning Your proficiency with the test itself is as important as your math and verbal skills. As you take the practice tests, check your testing performance. Many major mistakes begin two hours into the exam. Do you still try as hard as you did in the beginning? Do you begin to misread questions, make simple math mistakes, or fall for traps?

In addition to working the practice tests in this book, I recommend working the free computer-based practice tests that Educational Testing Service (ETS) provides at www.ets.org.

Planning Your Exam Time

Taking the GRE is a little like playing Beat the Clock. The computer provides you with an on-screen timer for each section. Your goal is to answer as many questions correctly, as quickly as possible, before the clock reaches 0:00. You have the option of hiding this timer, but I don’t recommend that. Instead, make the timer familiar and comfortable (or rather, less uncomfortable) by using a stopwatch while doing homework and practice tests. Practicing with a stopwatch is part of preparing for the test-taking experience.

Planning your question time

Don’t obsess over giving each question a specific number of seconds, but do know when to give up and come back to a question later. A good rule of thumb is about a minute per question. As long as you haven’t exited the section, you can return to any questions in that section. Simply call up the Review Screen by clicking Review, click the question you want to return to, and then click Go to Question. You can mark a question for review so it’s flagged on the Review Screen, or you can write the question number down on your scratch paper. Just keep in mind that while you’re on the Review Screen, the clock still ticks.

Throwing a mental dart

The GRE doesn’t penalize for guessing; this means that a wrong answer and no answer count exactly the same toward your score. You don’t lose points for a wrong answer. If you’re not sure how to answer a question, don’t get stuck on it. Instead, throw a mental dart and take a guess:

Rule out as many obviously incorrect choices as possible, and guess from the remaining choices.

Write down the question number or mark it for review, so you can return to it before time runs out on that section.

Finish the section, even if you must throw more mental darts (in other words, take more guesses) near the end. Because a wrong answer counts the same as no answer, you may as well guess and take the chance of getting it right.

Note that this is not really your main strategy. You should be prepared and able to answer most, if not all, of the questions correctly. But as the second Math and Verbal sections increase in difficulty (because you did so well on the first Math and Verbal sections — see Chapter 1 for information on calculating your score), you may see a question or two that you’re not sure how to answer. If that happens, this is how you handle it.

Planning your intermission time

The GRE provides an optional ten-minute break after the third section of the exam. However, if you’re in the testing center, don’t expect to have this entire time to yourself: Part of that time is for checking in and out while the proctors go through their security procedures to ensure that you’re not bringing in any new materials.

Whether in the center or at home, the ten-minute intermission is timed by the computer, which resumes the test whether you’re seated or not. You probably have five minutes to do your business, which leaves little time to grab a bite if you’re hungry. Plan accordingly by preparing snacks and water to leave in your locker or ready to go at home, so that during your actual five minutes, you can refresh yourself without having to scramble.

Remember Make sure your packed snacks are light and nutritious. Sugar brings you up for a few minutes and then takes you way down. Something heavy, like beef jerky, makes you drowsy. You don’t want to crash in the middle of a quadratic equation. Bring a small bag of almonds, some trail mix, or something light that isn’t going to send all the blood from your brain down to your stomach for digestion.

Between other sections of the test, you get a one-minute break — just enough time to clear your mind. You don’t have time to leave your seat and come back before the test resumes. If you absolutely, positively must use the restroom, just remember that the test clock keeps ticking.

Planning your computer time

Sure you know computers, but do you know this particular app — the GRE? Probably not, but it’s easy to learn. Just make sure that you learn the ins and outs before the actual exam. Don’t risk making a mistake that kills your score, such as getting stuck on a question because you forgot that you can skip it and go back.

To gain experience with the computerized GRE, take it for a test drive using the free practice exams from ETS. At the time of this writing, the practice exam package is web-based and features two actual GRE computer-based practice exams for you to become accustomed to the format of the real thing. You can find it at www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep/.

The ETS practice exams look and feel exactly like the real thing, except that they don’t hold your life in the balance. Most of the buttons are self-explanatory, but the following ones deserve special attention.

Mark: Mark enables you to flag the question for review, and when you click it, a small checkmark appears on the button. Click it again to remove the checkmark. That’s all it does.

Tip When you mark a question for review, if you haven’t answered the question, be sure to guess an answer! That way, if you run out of time, you at least have a shot at guessing it correctly. (See the section "Throwing a mental dart" for more on this.)

Review: Review takes you to the Review Screen, which shows a list of questions in the section, along with which ones have been answered and which are flagged for review using the Mark button. Select any question from the list, click the Go To button (which is only on that screen), and you’re back at that question. You can then review the question and change your answer if desired.

Warning A common trap is marking every question that you have the slightest doubt on, intending to go back to it later. Problem is, when you’ve reached the end of the section, you have 16 questions marked and only four minutes to work them! Be sure to prioritize what you truly want to go back to.

Exit Section: This button ends the section and saves your essay or answers so you can proceed to the next section. After you click this button, you can’t go back to change answers or return to unanswered questions in the section.

Quit Test: This button ends the exam and cancels your scores. Don’t use this one.

Take the computerized sample test not only to get a feel for the content and format of the questions but also to become accustomed to selecting answers and using the buttons to navigate. A day or two prior to the actual test, take the computerized practice test again to reorient yourself with the buttons.

For additional practice, go to www.dummies.com and register your book for access to computer-based practice exams, albeit in a slightly different format. Instructions for registering are in this book’s Introduction. And for even more practice, check out 1,001 GRE Practice Questions For Dummies (Wiley).

Planning Your Mental and Physical Time

Taking an intense four-hour exam is challenging both mentally and physically. Most people aren’t used to concentrating at this level for such a long time. To meet the challenge, your brain needs a good supply of oxygen and nutrients, and it gets those from an active, healthy, and alert body primed with nutritious foods and beverages. The following sections provide guidance on whipping your body into shape for test day.

Staying active

You can’t just be a bookworm for the months leading up to the exam: You need to stay active. Exercise helps all parts of the body and leads to clearer thinking by increasing oxygen to the brain, so get moving! You don’t need to train for a marathon. Walking, swimming, jogging, yoga, Pilates, basketball, or doing anything active, especially outdoors, gets your body in motion and increases your overall health and circulation.

Eating well

Certain foods and beverages affect your cognitive ability, so avoid highly processed foods and foods high in sugar, starch, or fat. These foods tend to make you feel sluggish or result in bursts of energy followed by prolonged crashes. Lean more toward veggies — especially green, leafy veggies — and foods that are high in protein. When it comes to carbohydrates, go for complex over simple. Complex carbohydrates are typically found in fresh fruits, veggies, and whole-grain products. Simple carbohydrates (to be avoided) are found in candy, soda, anything made from white flour, and most junk foods, including chips. And forget those energy drinks that combine huge amounts of caffeine and sugar to get you to a state of heightened tension.

Tip If you plan on taking an energy drink or anything unusual on the day of the test, try it out first on a practice test. If the drink gives you the jitters or upsets your stomach, you won’t want to discover this on the day of the exam.

Relaxing

Relaxation comes in different forms for